Famed Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki’s hatred of technology has lately taken on a distinctly survivalist tone – now he is fulminating about how modern technology is robbing the poor children of such crucial life skills such as fire-making and flint-knapping.

The environment children are now in, including our animation, is all virtual. TV, games, email and mobile phones, and even manga, everything we do in other words, they’re all robbing children of power.

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Before they learn their letters, we must teach children the essentials, as we have done from the stone age.

How to start a fire, keep it burning, put it out, the nature of water, how to climb trees, how to wind rope, use a needle and thread, use a knife. I think the state must teach the children these things before they teach them to write.

In response, some have pointed out it seems rather more likely that what is robbing the youth of Japan of power is that the nation is now run by and for the sake of a class of old people possessing views almost as outmoded as those of Miyazaki.

You may invest in response teams but outsourcing ALL those basic skills to trained professionals is very damaging to the children. The survival skills do not only come in handy in case of global apocalypse, just in case that's the impression you may have.

By the way, why do children at school learn about higher math and chemistry but not how to save a person with first aid?

Why do they now how to root an Android mobile but not how to make a fire?

@HouseLife
I disagree. If you have the time to teach children survival skills, then why not just invest it in improving your local emergency response service? Surely qualified rescue personal would be much more useful than someone who learned how to start a fire in the event of emergency which, let's be honest, is the only situation that would require survival skills from city dwellers.

Now if you are the adventurous type, you should be educating yourself about survival before taking up risky travels. But in the end, it's nobody's fault if a healthy thinking adults kill themselves out of recklessness, and it's the parent's fault if children do so. By no stretch of imagination is it a social issue.

Either way, teaching everyone basic survival has very low time investment to potential benefit ratio. Better tech these children something useful, like science or something actually beneficial like PE.

The sad part is his point is a great one, just said with the eloquence and purpose of a fool.

The concept of the Cub Scouts and such was to teach more than just survival, but also about expanding perspective on nature and increase understanding of the world around them. Unfortunately the focus became about dumbass badges due to the reward system built around American children, but they still learned. I wouldn't say that it's at all necessary to do it before learning to read or write, because the progress of our civilization makes that fundamentally unnecessary, but I agree that giving fundamental respect to the elements we take for granted is a good idea.

Unless of course Miyazaki-sama understands something about the zombie apocalypse that we do not. And by the nature of that shit-eating grin up there, I think I should brush up on my knife fighting skills...

You may invest in response teams but outsourcing ALL those basic skills to trained professionals is very damaging to the children.

The polite thing to do when you make a claim is to give some kind justification. How does it damage me that I cannot start a fire with a bunch of sticks and stones, or whatever other survival skill you would have me master?
Kids are taught how to react to common dangers in the city (criminals, fires in buildings, etc...). You can't ready them for every possible situations nor should you. Some people are going to die because they never knew something, but that's acceptable compared to stirring social progress to a halt just to teach kids how to live as cavement.

The survival skills do not only come in handy in case of global apocalypse, just in case that's the impression you may have.

Don't put words in my mouth. I never said anything that remotely hints at the possibility.

By the way, why do children at school learn about higher math and chemistry but not how to save a person with first aid?

You call school level math "higher"?
But on the point, they learn it because math is the foundation of pretty much any science course they would ever take in university. As for chemistry, it's taught because it's one of the fundamental sciences and it's very basics should be common knowledge. School is supposed to arm you with a wide assortment of fundamental knowledge in different areas, not teach you practical stuff. Weather you agree with this mindset is another matter.

Why do they now how to root an Android mobile but not how to make a fire?

Too much free time. Go complain to their parents, it's their problem. And, that doesn't justify why they should be learning survival skills in school. You are introducing a completely unrelated issue.

Well, he does have a point. In this age, anything can happen in a blink of an eye. It's definitely necessary to have a set of basic survival skills at hand. Even I can do all that except climbing trees.

However, denying technology and calling it the reason for the kids' loss of power is just childish. In fact, I believe that technology has given children more power than before... or that children never had much power to begin with. Hell, most people don't have power as well.

Knowledgeable indeed, yet so many could have their car break down in the sticks, get lost in the woods, and die of exposure or thirst while surrounded by enough abundance to even live comfortably if they just had basic skills.

Look at what's happening in the big cities with all these snow storms. Look at all the helpless people who wouldn't be in that position if they went to boyscouts/girlscouts and learned to properly deal with harsh weather.

Yes survival skills are very helpful and will continue to be long into the future.

I believe the issues with snowstorms are more down to ineffective or underfunded local services not bothering to clear or grit the roads and so on. Knowing how to build an igloo or shoot and dress an elk is hardly going to alleviate a traffic jam caused by bad weather.

@Eddyak
There has been no recent (100 years) precedent where people have been forced to abandon a city en masse without being provided adequate basic neccessities for survival. Do tell us, just what kind of situation would require such skills from common people?

@3:31
I fail to see how a snow storm inside a city would require survival skills from it's citizens. Since there doesn't seem to be any precedents. Maybe you would care to give some links or model it for us?

old man certaibly has a point
however his point has 2 flaws: division of labour and its the bloody 21st century
it would be awesome if everyone was at least half as good as bear grylls, but probably less than 1% of us will ever need really these skills
making them compulsory is a waste of time and effort

If survival skills are a waste of time and effort because they MAY NOT BE USED than why do kids learn about bloody chemistry and biology topics, which will MOST DEFINITELY NEVER BE USED by 95% of them?

Because the survival skills he mentioned are important to know in the urban jungle, yes? Knowing how to use GPS, making a phone call for help, is still a better option than making a signal smoke when you're lost in the middle of a city. A signal smoke does get the police attention though.

Survival skills are useful but hardly necessary when you're not the outdoors type.